Two Worlds, One Love
Hello,
As we announced earlier this week, our SA-MP server is finally ready for a pre-release. I want to talk a bit about what this means, why we’re doing it and what’s the plan with (not only) the SA-MP server going forward.
When we set out to bring back the SA-MP server a month ago, I had a condition that if we’re doing this, it has to be done right. The SA-MP server has serious legacy and I’d consider it improper to rush it out the door like it’s no big deal. The server and all the data connected to it has been sitting in the vault for around three years now and I was surprised to be reminded just how complex the infrastructure around it is.
Over the past month, we’ve been all hands on deck in development and leadership to bring the server out as soon as possible, no compromise. Majority of the work we’ve done was captured on our SA-MP Roadmap, which we kept updated periodically to keep you in the loop on our progress. There’s still a lot more to do, mainly staff and admin tools, and strengthening our AntiCheat, which has honestly been lackluster even three years ago, let alone now. We want to be prepared for the players and do our best to provide a fun space to play.
I’ll be honest I’m surprised by the amount of people interested in the pre-release already. We opened the server up to premium members yesterday, a day earlier than promised. As of writing this, 130 players have joined the pre-release so far by activating a premium membership (including those with leftover credits from Patreon). And that’s only during the sneaky-surprise-don’t-tell-anyone pre-pre-release!
But yes, it’s a huge relief to see the interest this early on. It allows the community to be self-sustainable for the foreseeable future without having to worry how to pool funds to keep the lights on. So I’d like to extend my gratitude to everyone who chose to donate by purchasing a premium membership, or plans on doing so - thanks to you we’re able to keep going.
Thankfully we haven’t experienced any major issues during the pre-release yet. We found a few issues in our infra, but nothing we couldn’t fix over the upcoming week. We’ll see what we’ll have thrown our way still. The early stability is a testament to the great work that’s been done by our staff team - thank you everyone who tested, developed or otherwise helped prepare for this milestone.
We're listening, hearing, watching and seeing. Your feedback during pre-release and post-launch is very important to us and we'll use it to shape what's going to be prioritized going forward. I've put our head of project @Sal (and of course rest of our lead team as well) on a mission to put the needs of the community, and the server, first and help us translate that into actions. We also realize the importance of marketing efforts we need to do now, and we're on top of it.
To join the pre-release:
- Make an account on our User Control Panel
- Fill out a character application (or just create a character if you already have one and want another)
- Purchase credits and activate Premium Membership in the Premium Central
- Download SA-MP 0.3.DL-R1
- Connect to server.ls-rp.com:7777 using your account name ("UCP name")
Optionally, you can download the model cache directory from our Model List Page.
Looking forward seeing many familiar, and new faces ingame!
IC Social Media
As promised, we’re also launching an In Character social media platform for our SA-MP server. Since we already use faceinvader for RAGE, welcome our newest domain portfolio addition: myface.site. The facebook inspired IC social media platform is available to use now and anyone can make account, even if you’re not a part of the pre-release, or are otherwise unable to go ingame. Contact @badhbh, the head of in-game social media platforms in case you have any questions.
Model Previews
About four-five years ago I started working on a suite of tools to allow us to render any models from GTA:SA in the browser. This includes skins, vehicles (including mods!), objects, custom maps and so on. I spent some time dusting it off and adding support for edge cases in RW rendering and optimizing it so we can fully utilize it in our pipeline. What this allows us to do is to not only render all your skins and modded vehicles on the UCP and render them in real time in your browser, but for example it allowed us to render the entire GTA:SA map, including our custom maps (including custom game models!) and outside furniture, in great detail. You can see a small preview of it already when you change spawn on the UCP, but just to get a picture for the actual scale of it, check out this POC and try zooming around different parts of the map to see (not only) our custom mapping in great detail.
While this was maybe a bit over the top to prepare for a simple skin and spawn change, it lays out great potential for a very powerful “map on the web” feature, once we take full advantage of it. Anyway just something I got excited about.
Aerial view of a custom map in Pershing Square and the custom LSPD Metro Station
V-estern Front
For our RAGE Multiplayer server, we’re currently testing two features: in-game television system to watch content together, and an improved minigame (breakin). I’ve also started work on a Casino Roulette script, as another part in our Gamba Feature Series.
Don't forget to have fun.
Martin
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